What do Afghanistan, Obama, and the GOP have in common? I wish they'd go away...

A few things to discuss tonight, mostly political, so, sorry to those of you who don't care. The Snooze Fest begins....now.

First off, is Afghanistan. Obama is reportedly going to announce sending an additional 34,000 troops to Afghanistan on Friday. Personally, I don't think it'd matter if we sent every lower class 18-35 year old citizen in America, we'd still have trouble accomplishing anything. They're a divided, xenophobic people who view us as occupiers(Thanks to Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer for drilling this into my head). The Karzai government is laughable(ranked 2nd most corrupt country in the world, Somalia is 1st, Iraq is 5th[isn't it funny how U.S. troops have all been to these places in the two decades?]), the Taliban is growing, and casualties are practically soaring. What really pisses me off about this is the notion that congress is actually concerned about how to pay for all this. Democrats are throwing around the idea of instead of adding this to the 12,000,000,000,000 dollar debt, we start taxing rich people(that 250k mark is being thrown around again) to curb the cost and lessen some of the cost to our children! Wow, that's brilliant guys, you're really earning that six figure salary we pay for every year. I have a solution just as simple, and I believe, just as worthy of a congressional seat. Stop fighting! Realize that we failed to do the job properly, realize that Osama is going to die of natural causes(maybe he'll go out with a real bang though), and realize that we've REALLY fucked things over at home in our effort to further the empire.

Onwards, to slightly more comical matters. After switching off CNN in disgust today, mostly over shitty reporting, but at least a bit because I <3 Lou Dobbs, I turned on FOX. Now, I haven't watched FOX regularly in about 3 years, but I'm pondering a come back, but that's a story for another post. I saw a story about the Grand Ol' Party potentially making GOP candidates take a test which determines whether or not they are true conservatives, and if they don't fall in with 8 of the 10 party lines, the GOP will shut off party funding. Besides being struck with the initial feeling that this stunt is something I might expect in Soviet Russia, I was very curious what the 10 things were. Luckily, I found them:
You must support 8 of the following 10 things to be a Conservative in the Republican party,

1. Smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's “stimulus” bill.
2. Market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care.
3. Market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation.
4. Workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check.
5. Legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants.
6. Victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges.
7. Containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat.
8. Retention of the Defense of Marriage Act.
9. Protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion.
10. The right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.

1) Yes, making government smaller, or at least preventing it from growing takes precedence over anything.
2) Yes, government has no role in dishing out healthcare, the free market will take care of that.
3) Yes, cap and trade is a ridiculous amount of government regulation and it will increase living costs across the board.
4) Yes, workers shouldn't be forced to unionize, and likewise, I think corporations should be able to decide if they will allow unions.
5) Yes, illegal immigration is a plague upon our country, and should be a priority(one of few) of the government to take reasonable measures to shore up our nations borders.
6) No, these wars are lost, and were not meant to be fought in the first place. It is not the responsibility of the United States to spread democracy.
7) No, While rogue states are a problem, they are not a particular threat, and the only thing that's going to help spread and create nations like Iran and North Korea is if the U.S. keeps threatening them. These nations will naturally collapse over time. Iran was close to revolution this summer, and although North Korea doesn't show signs of loosening up any time soon, I think they will not do anything that will threaten the United States.
8) No, gay people should be allowed to marry, who is the government to say they can't? The Defence of Marriage Act is a restriction of freedom and should be struck down. Let the states choose.
9) Yes, government shouldn't have the power a persons healthcare, and thus, while I'm pro-choice, money for abortions is really a non-issue here.
10) Yes, the second amendment guarantee for gun ownership is essential to our freedom and restriction of gun ownership(beyond some bits regulation) is unconstitutional.


7/10. To be honest I'm a bit shocked, I was thinking more around the range of 5-6, but these aren't all the issues. I find that abortion not being it's own little issue on here is an encouraging step for the GOP. It's an interesting survey, and I'm curious as to where congressional republicans would fall. The good news in all of this is that, while I'm a registered Libertarian, a career in politics is only a signature and one measly issue away from me.